Sister to Sister

Posted on Wed Oct 14th, 2020 @ 10:52am by Lieutenant Iowa Riverside 'Grey Ghost'

991 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Allegations
Location: USS New Jersey Museum; Camden, NJ

Iowa was relieved to finally have some time to herself, and decided to take some shore leave to pay a visit to a certain special someone. Although the conversation would certainly be one-sided, she needed to see her sole-surviving sister to clear her thoughts.

Iowa materialized outside the USS New Jersey Museum, and took in the powerful profile of the old Iowa-Class Battleship. She was still secretly amazed that all the old Iowa-Class Battleships were still around. The Iowa and New Jersey were far enough away from where the bombs dropped that they were spared any significant damage. Any damage that they did sustain was largely cosmetic and easily repaired.

The Missouri and Wisconsin were the surprising ones: Both were heavily damaged given their locations: The Missouri on an active military installation, and the Wisconsin being right on the Norfolk waterfront. Both were in time repaired and re-opened as museum ships.

The same could not be said for the Riverside sisters that shared names with the battered but undefeated ships: Missouri Riverside was blown away when the USS Arizona Memorial where she was housed was decimated in the bombing. In the ultimate twist of irony, her batterered cryo-chamber was found impaled on the Missouri's anchor, the bloody paste that remained of her dripping out and running down the Missouri's hull.

Wisconsin Riverside's Cryo-Chamber was lost when the main building of the Nauticus museum where she was housed was leveled in the bombing of Norfolk. To this day, the cryo-chamber still hadn't been recovered.

Iowa sighed as she remembered finding out that her sisters hadn't died the way they wanted to: Fighting for Uncle Sam. But, she would continue to fly in their memory. She would never forget the good times they had together: And folks of the future be damned if they didn't understand.

Iowa entered the New Jersey museum and was almost immediately greeted by the staff.

"Welcome, Ms. Riverside!"

"Thank you;" Iowa responded. "How y'all doing?"

"Oh, just another day in sunny ol' Camden. Here to see your sister?"

"You bet!" Iowa responded. "Though I suppose seeing the old battleship isn't too bad of a deal either..."

Iowa made her way on board the ship and wound her way down the tour route, getting recognized along the way and signing a few autographs before she finally reached her destination: A semi-permanent structure that had been erected over the New Jersey's helipad which housed an exhibit giving a brief history on the Riverside sisters before the grand reveal of New Jersey Riverside's Cryo-Chamber, which housed the sleeping New Jersey inside. The Iowa museum had a similar exhibit, but Iowa's cryo-chamber was empty.

When Iowa arrived at the exhibit, she nodded to the staff, who understood that she wanted a moment alone with her sister and casually began herding visitors out of the exhibit and re-routing the tour to skip the exhibit. Once the last visitor left, the staff went outside and locked the doors, to stand outside until Iowa was finished.

Now that Iowa was alone, she could say her piece:

"Hey, there, sis..." She began. "I figured since I'm stopping back in this neck of the woods, I'd swing in and say hello..."

Iowa stared at her sister's unmoving face. The cryo-chamber's monitors read all life signs normal.

"It's been a rough ride." Iowa admitted. "I did some things I'm not too proud of, and everybody thinks I'm selfish. I came here to get away from them for a little bit, too..."

Iowa sighed and stared at the cryo-chamber's heart rate monitor.

"I miss you, sis." She said. "I miss Mighty Mo and the Big Cheese, too. Damn, it's still hard for me to think about. You're lucky that you don't have to know their fates."

She sighed.

"And to think that I almost joined them." Iowa sighed. "Things have been a real shit storm out here lately, and you should be glad you're still in there sleeping through it all. I ain't paying too much attention to the shit happening at the top, but it's just as bad down here. I actually managed to steal away on some shore leave while the trial's going on, and I'm going to take some of these future kids on our idea of a good ol' holiday."

Iowa smiled for the first time, and chuckled.

"Remember when RVing was the thing to do?" She reminisced. "It was gaining traction after the war, and it was only bigger in the 80s? Well, if you can believe it, it's now a dying art form. I managed to secure one of them old tin cans, and I'm going to show those folks a good ol' time. These young ladies probably never heard about living on a bus before."

Iowa could already picture the horrified looks on Mika's and Saeko's faces.

"Oh, it's going to be such great fun!" She giggled. "It's always a good time showing the future folks what was cool and hip in the past. You'd be surprised that stuff once commonplace has long fallen out of practice. But trust me, sis; right now, I couldn't be any more envious of your position."

Iowa sighed.

"It sucks having these one-way conversations." She admitted. "It's worse because the technology exists now to give you a voice even as you're sleeping. It'd make for one hell of an interactive exhibit, that's for sure."

Iowa stood up.

"Well, I think that's all I've got for the moment: I figured you'd want to know the state of your dear old sis out here." She said. "Good talk."

Iowa wasn't sure how to feel as she left: She felt she hadn't gotten out what she really wanted to say, but perhaps things were better that way; New Jersey didn't need to know all the details of the drama going on, but just enough to know that things were bad.

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Lieutenant Iowa Riverside 'Grey Ghost'
Fighter Pilot

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